Home Again?
I'm not sure rather fanfare or tears are more called for at the moment; Raymond and I returned from Chicago yesterday afternoon around 4:00 - disappointed and annoyed. I got a lot accomplished while I was in the city, and leaving it all behind was heartbreaking. I've quickly become attached to a city that already feels like home to me.
Monday morning we left Toledo and made it to Chicago about 4 hours later with only one speeding ticket in Indiana; a fine I'm officially not going to pay. I see nothing wrong with going 86 miles an hour in a 65. If I don't pay, I'll not be allowed to drive in Indiana anymore. Such a shame. We arrived in Chicago with a severe thunderstorm, and had the car parked and settled into our hotel. A blessing in disguise, the storm cleared as soon as we were unpacked. We ventured out to Michigan Ave. for lunch and shopping, and then headed to the meeting with my realtor at 1:00. By the end of the day, I had a fabulous apartment secured in Lincoln Park at a reasonable rent rate (by my standards, anyhow) only a few blocks from Boystown, Chicago's hot ass gay district.
Tuesday was my day with Marshall Field's State St. - I signed all my paperwork and officially accepted my position with the company. Very exciting. I'm part of a management team for the fragrance & cosmetics floor, so I'm thrilled. I'm obsessed with fragrance. The rest of the day was just full of more shopping, and then Ray and I met up with Gino & Roy for dinner in Boystown. Roy's friend Greg joined, and we had a great time. The night wrapped up at the trendy martini bar, Felt.
Wednesday I was finally able to sleep in- by vacation standards, I guess. I was up at 10:00 - showered, and off to breakfast with Ray. Following a little more shopping, I hung out with Justen. Justen took a cab to Kenneth Cole and I waited out front for him to show up. We walked Michigan Ave holding hands. We ended up in a taxi cab in the south Loop with the most entertaining driver ever. He was talking about how wonderful the world was, and he was, and we were... it was so amusing. I'm not sure where they hire these people at. Got out at AMC and got tickets to see Raising Helen, and then walked to McDonalds. The movie was fun. Wednesday night Ray and I watched the Simple Life 2 premiere, and our girls were hott. We ordered dinner in, and just relaxed the rest of the night. After dinner, we went for about an hour walk down Michigan, across to State, back up Rush, across Oak, and down Michigan again to the hotel. The city is so beautiul... I wanted to cry on that final walk, knowing I'll be away from it for the next month.
I move July 12th.
All in all, the trip was successful, fun, and relaxing. I got what I needed to get accomplished, and Ray and I had a lot of time to bond together. I'm not going to talk about how many thousands of dollars in cash we had between us on this trip- just know that being the shoppers we are, we returned to my apartment with, literally, 12 cents in cash between us. Thank God that final toll was only $2.00.